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Stars Lead The Way As Penguins Defeat Utah In Overtime Thriller

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The Pittsburgh Penguins came into the final game of their seven-game, 15-day road trip on Wednesday in desperate need of a good outcome.

Well, they got what they wanted – thanks to their two biggest stars.

Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner on his patented backhand, and Erik Karlsson tied the game in the third with a snipe, as Pittsburgh defeated the Utah Hockey Club, 3-2.

Crosby’s goal was vintage. Fresh from the bench, he took a pass from Cody Glass, cut around and inside Utah forward Josh Doan, skated across the crease, and backhanded one past Utah goaltender Connor Ingram.

After the first 20 minutes of play, it was a very solid effort from the Penguins all around. They outshot Utah 15-3 in the second period, and the third period was a thrilling frame with exchanged chances and huge saves on either end.

Ingram made 25 saves on 28 shots, while Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic – starting his fifth game on the road trip – made 27 of 29 stops, giving him a 3-2 record and a .930 save percentage on the trip.

“He made some timely saves,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “He made some timely saves for us, and that’s what’s required to win in this league.”

Largely thanks to Nedeljkovic, the Penguins came back twice in this game. Mikhail Sergachev scored on a first-period power play for Utah, and Marcus Pettersson evened things up in the first half of the second period with a blast from the point that hit a foot on the way in.

Less than two minutes after Pettersson’s goal, Utah forward Michael Carcone took a beautiful, unexpected flip from ex-Penguin John Marino, catching Karlsson off-guard and leading to a breakaway goal. Karlsson realized his mistake, and – after a shaky first half of the game – really dialed it up after that goal against.

A little over six minutes into the third, Karlsson took a feed off the rush, hesitated enough to throw Ingram off, picked his spot, and sniped a shot into the upper-right corner of the net to tie the game at 2-2, and, ultimately, force overtime.

This was a much-needed win for the Penguins, who found themselves seven points out of a wild card spot heading into this game and are now just five points back. They know their situation, they know they need the wins – and they know the next stretch of games before the 4 Nations Face-off is very important.

“We needed the two points tonight,” Nedeljkovic said. “One wasn’t going to be good enough, and we know it. We know where we are. So, we need two points every night here going forward. [Wednesday] was the first step.”

Here are just a few other thoughts and observations from this win:

– This game really had a disastrous start for Karlsson. This season, we haven’t seen nearly as many games like this from him as opposed to last season. He’s largely cleaned up a lot of glaring mistakes that were far too frequent in his game last season.

But – Carcone’s goal aside – there were many of them on Wednesday. He registered three giveaways and frequently mishandled pucks and was out-of-position in coverage. Midway through the second period, Sullivan also made the decision to switch defensive pairs, putting Marcus Pettersson back with Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk back with Kris Letang.

And – coincidence or not – it worked. After the goal against, Karlsson was everywhere. He registered a team-high six shots on goal, scored that goal, and even made a few huge defensive plays in the third period and in overtime to help the Penguins win the game.

It’s been said before, and it couldn’t be more true: It’s amazing how Karlsson’s play is generally indicative of the way the team is playing. He is a monumentally important player to this team, and I don’t think there’s a more consequential player.

He needs to play a lot more like “second-half Karlsson” on the road ahead if the Penguins expect to climb their way back into the race.

– I thought Cody Glass played an exceptional game on Wednesday – especially in overtime.

Look, it’s no secret that his production isn’t where it needs to be, but he continually makes clean plays on both sides of the ice. His game is mistake-free. He came up with a huge block on a Utah odd-man rush. He made the patient play in overtime, giving a fresh Crosby the puck right before Crosby’s goal.

He’s low-event, and there isn’t much that’s going to “wow” you. But he’s pretty consistently on the right side of most plays.

– Kevin Hayes put on a possession show in overtime for a hot second.

He held onto the puck in the offensive zone for a good twenty or so seconds, skating around until his teammates had the chance to change. He ultimately lost the puck when he didn’t have an outlet because of the line change, but he tired out Utah players who had been on the ice for a minute and a half.

The Penguins scored shortly afterward following Utah’s change of personnel.

– Nedeljkovic has really been outstanding in this stretch, despite the results. Joel Blomqvist has been fine, too, but I think this is a case of the Penguins riding the hot goaltender when they are desperate to rack up as many points as possible.

And Sullivan did say that Nedeljkovic is starting to nail down that starting position.

“I think he’s played extremely well,” Sullivan said. “He’s made timely saves at key times that give us a chance to win. You can look at some of the games that were played here most recently, and when you evaluate it, you can say that coming out of most of the games. So, that’s what we’re asking of our goaltenders. He battles, he competes. I think, to a certain extent, his personality… it’s contagious with our guys.”

If the Penguins are hanging around the playoff picture, I would assume that they’re going to keep riding the hot hand, whoever that is. And once that guy has an iffy game, they’ll go to the next guy. They’re going to start the netminder who is performing in the “here and now.”

But, if they continue to fall out of the race, I would expect to see more starts from Blomqvust down the stretch.

– The Penguins have four more games before the 4 Nations break. They play Nashville on Saturday before three consecutive divisonal matchups against the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and Philadelphia Flyers.

It’s safe to say that this stretch is likely to define their season. They pretty much need to win all of these games, but if they’re going to lose one, it better be against Nashville – a team that is not at all consequential to the standings for them.

– Utah’s naming carousel came to a head Wednesday when it was ruled that they cannot be called “Yeti” – the fan-chosen name by a mile – because the YETI cooler brand refused to sign a co-existence agreement.

Pretty rich for a league whose trophy is called the “Stanley Cup”, don’t you think?

This is just stupid. I’m sorry. This is the name the fans wanted. “Yeti” was a word long before the YETI corporation existed. It’s a crime that they, essentially, own the word “Yeti.”

Mammoth, Hockey Club, and Wasatch are the three remaining names. Yeti was the clear choice, but Mammoth is the clear second. It’s a shame that it came down to this either way – all because of corporate greed.

– 4 Nations captains are being announced throughout the day today [Thursday]. It would come as a surprise if Crosby is not named Canada’s captain at 2:00 p.m. ET.

I am of the belief that Crosby will captain anything international with Canada until the day he hangs them up. He may not be the league’s best player any more, but he is certainly its best and most respected leader. And he has not had this distinction since 2015 – which is far too long.

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